Dark Souls. It's infamous by now. Often touted as 'one of the hardest games of all time', it became synonymous with challenging yourself to prove you're damn good at games. I've always taken issue with the "wow, so hard" narrative surrounding Dark Souls. In fact, what I've always found so good about the Souls games (including Demon's before it) is that they're not so much trying to be frustratingly hard, as playing by different rules. Rules you have to learn, manipulate and bend to make the game easier for yourself, more manageable. Death isn’t failure but part of the learning process.

I know very few people who've played Dark Souls extensively and haven't finished it because they were stuck.

Dark Souls II understands this. It understands that the formula isn't 'present the player with a super hard game'. In some ways - especially for seasoned Souls veterans - the game is considerably easier. You're never forced to learn many new systems, since the majority of them carry over from the previous game. To that extent, Dark Souls II doesn't quite recapture the magic of playing either of the previous two Souls games for the first time (Demon's and Dark are suitably different enough that the experience varied somewhat). It's a 'best of' of the previous games combined, taking some of the systems from Demon's (losing health upon death, fast travel from the start) and attempting to apply them to a bigger, better Dark Souls world.

It's certainly bigger. Much, much bigger. There are entire, huge areas you could potentially never visit at all. Yesterday I went back to the first full location, and managed to find an entirely new path I'd missed, complete with bonfire and mini-bosses. Because of this, there's frequently not a 'correct' way to go, either. It's much closer to Demon's Souls in the sense that there are always multiple different routes you can take and things to tackle from the start, as opposed to Dark Souls only really opening up the branching paths for a newcomer much later in the game. It means you're rarely ever stuck in one place for too long, and are given the opportunity to go elsewhere to learn if you really are up against a brick wall.

Some of the locations are absolutely stunning, too. Majula, the sequel's answer to the Firelink Shrine, is a beautiful, windswept clifftop camp framed by a perpetual sunset. Waves crash off fingers of rock, grass sways in the breeze, and three little piglets amble around aimlessly. They attack you if you get too close, though. Of course they do. NPCs gradually gather here, populating your little camp, and trips back to Majula genuinely capture that sense of homecoming, of belonging amongst a group of strangers. The NPCs are wonderfully realised too; bizarre, mournful quips, a touch of humour, a dash of esotericism. There are a lot more characters this time round, too, all with consistently interesting stories to follow throughout the game.

When it gets down to actually playing the game, it's exceptionally familiar, but this is no bad thing. Archery and ranged combat is improved from Dark Souls somewhat, and there's an additional stat to level up that increases your poise and resistance, but it's all instantly very familiar to anyone who's played the games before. Things are a little better explained for newcomers this time, though. Covenants (pacts you can enter into with NPCs) are explained properly now, so for the most part you know what you're getting into when you sign up. Equipment is labeled a little clearer, and generally things are more accessible without really changing anything meaningful.

That said, perhaps because there's so much of it, and so many options, it feels like a considerably easier game. The majority of bosses take two or three tries tops, and all but the most hidden of optional encounters are extremely doable, often on the first attempt. Very few areas require much backtracking upon death either, with bonfire respawn placement very generous when it comes to boss encounters. Another possibly controversial inclusion is the fact that enemies stop respawning once you kill them a dozen times. If you do end up really stuck on an area, chances are by the end of it you'll have permanently cleared a path to the boss door simply by repeatedly killing things.

However, the trade-off is worth it; the sheer number of boss fights and memorable encounters make up for the slight dent in challenge, not to mention the fact that there's the option to join a covenant which makes the entire game harder, or burn an object in a bonfire to reset an area with increased difficulty.

While playing the game in its default state may seem a little less of a challenge than usual to veteran Souls players, the balance here is fantastic. It's more accessible without compromising itself, the sheer wealth of content and variety of boss fights more than makes up for the slightly easier time you'll have of it, and the rich world of Drangleic is comfortably the best in the series yet.

Of course, the online functions are going to be hugely important to the game upon release, but unfortunately the servers are yet to be switched on, so invasions, co-op and the like will only add to the quality once they're available. That said, even in offline mode, the game's a stunning example of world-building, adventure-finding and boss slaying. And you can absolutely still praise the sun.